


Somatic Components

by ERNest



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: Gen, Isolation, Magic, Resentment, Self-Determination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29141343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ERNest/pseuds/ERNest
Summary: A tool is just a tool; it isn’t a solution or a plan. Maria prepares to summon.
Kudos: 7





	Somatic Components

Maria does not know the names of the 72 demons. Yes, she knows what the names _are_ , but only full-fledged witches like Beatrice know how to _speak_ those names, and a lapwing like herself could never expect to simply say the syllables and summon an eons-old figure. Until one has stared a being in the eye, can one truly be said to know that being _or_ their name?

Someone with even less experience than Maria, a mere chick _might_ expect a miracle like that to come of something so simple, but they only have the tune of the time and outward habit. She’s not some little kid anymore but she used to really think that she was having tea and dress-up parties with demons and fiends.

Ridiculous! Back then her mother would have been right to talk about Maria’s imaginary friends because an imagination is all it was. She still shouldn’t have said it, though. Don’t any of these people know what a powerful tool an imagination can be? Like anything else you need to know how to use it, because a tool is just a tool; it isn’t a solution or a plan.

But Maria knows better now, and she’s learning more all the time. The only way to get what she wants is through real magic, and for that she needs Beatrice. It will take magic to get her to come, and Maria has an island of 18 people, all tools she can use to summon a 19th. It will be so much easier for all of them if at least some of them believe, but everyone in her family is so _stubborn!_

They laugh at her or they humor her or they ask her what she _really_ saw, or they offer their foolishly mundane explanations, but always, always they look down on her, and sometimes she just wants to stamp her foot and make them all disappear. No, it’s dangerous to think like that. Now that the island is becoming more and more of a place where magic exists for everyone, a wish has more staying power so she has to be careful with her words.

But it is no matter. The material components of a spell will still work even if they do not know what they are being used for, even if they continue to deny the power of a witch. And when it’s all over, when the seagulls cry and Maria sees Beatrice’s smiling face instead of wearing her smile, she will have all the friends she wants, and all the tea, and all the time, too.


End file.
